Training & Careers

Video: St. Louis Teen Becomes Police Officer for a Day

A 19-year-old graduate of the St. Louis Citizens Police Academy holds a special place in the hearts of the officers for his bravery in taking on life's challenges.

Less than a year after he was born, Shawn Chickey was diagnosed with Idiopathic Epilepsy. A dozen seizures until the age of 3-and-a-half damaged his brain but not his heart. And there has been one great passion in his life.

"Shawn is a very special young man. He loves the police department," Sgt. Catherine Dennis of St. Louis Police told KSDK-TV 5.

"He has great admiration for anything law enforcement," explains his mom Jane Chickey.

So after hearing his story, the St. Louis Police Department opened a space in their Citizens Police Academy program. Once a week for 12 weeks, Shawn learned all about how to protect and serve.

Shawn graduated from the Citizens Police Academy and was honored as an "Officer for the Day."

Training & Careers

In an effort to increase the number of potential new recruits eligible to join the agency, the Dallas Police Department wants to eliminate the requirement that recruits complete 45 hours of college credit.

“There’s an increased potential for officers to be criminally liable for making a good-faith mistake,” said Terry Sult, the police chief in Hampton, Va. “We’re seeing a lot more media coverage of officers being prosecuted, and that weighs heavily on a lot of officers' hearts. ... That’s a stressor on whether I want to stay in this position or not.”

North Carolina-based company K2 Solutions has trademarked its Person-Borne Explosives Detection Dogs. The term means the dog can detect explosives being carried on the body of a moving person. Click through to see these K-9s at work.
To find out more about K2 Solutions' Person-Borne Explosive Detection Dogs, read "Training the BombHunters."

Known by the initials TPC, the NRA’s Tactical Police Competition program was created to provide law enforcement agencies and their officers a cost effective way to expand their training opportunities in preparation for today’s challenging environment where officers must make split-second lifesaving decisions when dealing with violent situations in order to protect the communities they serve, the NRA says.

In a preliminary Illinois State Police investigation released late Tuesday, witness statements showed that the officer—who was responding to a shots-fired call— "gave the armed subject (Roberson) multiple verbal commands to drop the gun and get on the ground before ultimately discharging his weapon and striking the subject."

Nearly two decades after Columbine there shouldn't be any question as to what we as law enforcement should do in an active shooter situation. We have to respond as safely as possible, grab what we have with us, and stop the killing.